Slumdog Millionaire's Danny Boyle won the Best Director award from the
Directors' Guild of America, enhancing his Oscar chances.

The win greatly increases Boyle's chances of claiming the same prize at the Academy Awards on Feb 22, as the guild recipient regularly goes on to win the directing Oscar.

"Slumdog Millionaire" was originally to be released by Warner Independent, but its fate was thrown into doubt after Warner Bros. closed down the unit. For a time the film was poised to go straight to DVD but eventually found a home with Fox Searchlight, which has had success with such smaller films as "Little Miss Sunshine" and "Juno."

"I should start by curiously thanking Warner Bros. for actually having the grace to do the right thing, when I think it would have been a lot easier to do the wrong thing, and pass the film on to Fox Searchlight, who are an extraordinary bunch of people," Boyle said.

Backstage, Boyle joked about the fact that his award was presented by Joel and Ethan Coen, who won the prize a year ago for "No Country for Old Men."

"To step into the shoes of people like the Coen brothers, I mean, it's phenomenal, because I have, as I admitted in the earlier speech, I've stolen from them all my career," he said. "I mean in a naked and appalling way."

"The Office" won the top honour for television comedy, "The Wire" took the award for TV drama and "Recount" won for TV movie.

Paul Feig received the award for an installment of "The Office," whose competition included two episodes of "30 Rock," the series that has dominated at recent Hollywood honors such as the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

"We're in a real golden age of TV comedy, and I'm just happy to be part of it," Feig said backstage.

The drama series prize went to director Dan Attias for an episode from the final season of "The Wire," a far-reaching drama with a huge cast exploring police, criminals, courts, schools, politics, media and other facets of life in Baltimore.

"Austin Powers" and "Meet the Parents" director Jay Roach was the recipient for the election drama "Recount."

Ari Folman's "Waltz With Bashir" won the documentary award. The film, which is nominated for best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards, is director Forman's animated study of a soldier struggling to recall suppressed memories of his involvement in the war with Lebanon.